It is known that when peasant deputies from all over Russia
arrived in Petrograd for their All-Russia Congress, they were
promised—by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and by the
government—that the sale and purchase of land would be
immediately prohibited.

At first, Minister Pereverzev really wanted to carry out that
promise, and sent a telegram to stop all transactions involving
the sale or purchase of land. But later some invisible hand
intervened, and Minister Pereverzev withdrew his telegram to the
notaries public, i.e., again permitted the sale and purchase of
land.

The peasants began to worry. If I am not mistaken, they even
sent a delegation to the Ministry.

The peasants were reassured. They were soothed as one soothes
little children. They were assured that a law would be
issued immediately prohibiting the sale and purchase of land and
that Pereverzev’s temporary order had been
“suspended” “only” because such
a law was
about to be issued.

The Socialist-Revolutionaries reassured the peasants and fed
them with promises. The peasants believed them. The peasants
felt reassured. The peasants went home.

On June 24—no earlier—news appeared in the papers
that Minister Chernov, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary
Party, had submitted a Bill to the government (no more than a
Bill, as yet) to prohibit the sale and purchase of land.

On June 29, the papers published reports about a “private
conference” of the Duma, held on June 28. At the
conference,
according to Rech (a paper of the majority party in the
Provisional Government), Mr. Rodzyanko

“in his concluding remarks dwelt on the question of land
transactions in connection with the new [oh yes, exceedingly
new, new in the extreme!] government measures. He maintained
that if land deals were prohibited, land would lose its value
[for whom? For the landowners, obviously!! But isn’t it from
them that the peasants want to take the land?], all security for
loans would depreciate, and the landowners [the former
landowners, Mr. Rodzyanko!] would be denied all credit. From
what funds, asked Rodzyanko, will the landowners pay their
debts to the banks? In most cases the debts are already overdue,
and this Bill would lead to the immediate and legitimate
abolition of all landed property without auctions.

“In view of this, Rodzyanko proposed that the conference
should instruct the Provisional Committee to examine the matter
in order to endeavour to prevent the enactment of a law
that would be fatal to the state, not to private ownership of
land.”

Here, then, is the “invisible hand” made visible!
Here is the “cunning mechanism” of the coalition
government, with its near-socialist Ministers, given away by
this gentleman, this former Chairman of the former Duma, this
former landowner, this former confidant of Stolypin the Hangman,
this former protector of the agent .provocateur
Malinovsky—Mr. Rodzyanko!

Let us even assume that now that Mr. Rodzyanko has so clumsily
let the cat out of the bag, the law prohibiting the sale and
purchase of land will at last be passed. At last!

But that is not the whole point. The point is that this striking
example should make clear to all of us, and help the peasants
understand, how and why the peasants were deceived. For
the fact is incontrovertible and indubitable: they have deceived
the peasants by not fulfilling immediately what they
had promised to fulfil immediately at the All-Russia Congress of
Peasants’ Deputies.

How did they deceive the peasants? By feeding them with
promises. That is the “cunning mechanism” of every
coalition government on earth, i.e., of every bourgeois
Ministry which includes traitors to socialism. In these
Ministries, former socialists serve—whether consciously or
not makes no difference—as tools with which the
capitalists deceive the people.

Why were the peasants deceived? Because the tools of deceit, the
Socialist-Revolutionaries—we shall make the
most favourable assumption about them—themselves failed
to understand the cunning mechanism of class domination and
class policy in the present administration of Russia. The
Socialist-Revolutionaries allowed themselves to be led astray by
talk. But actually, as the Rodzyanko “incident” shows
very well, Russia is being ruled by a bloc between two blocs, by
an alliance between two alliances.

One bloc is the bloc of the Cadets and the monarchist
landowners, among whom Mr. Rodzyanko ranks first. The existence
of this bloc as a political fact was shown to the whole of
Russia during the Petrograd elections, when all the
Black Hundred papers, all the papers to the right of
the Cadets, supported the Cadets. Thanks to the Socialist-
Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, this bloc has a
majority in the government. This bloc delayed the
prohibition of transactions involving the sale and purchase of
land. It is supporting the landowners and the capitalists
responsible for the lock-outs.

The second bloc is that of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the
Mensheviks, which has deceived the people by empty
promises. Skobelev and Tsereteli, Peshekhonov and Chernov
promised an awful lot. It is easy to make promises. The
“socialist” Ministers’ method of feeding the people
with promises has been tried in every advanced country
in the world and has everywhere ended in failure. Russia’s
specific feature is that owing to the revolutionary situation
in the country the failure of the Socialist-Revolutionary and
Menshevik parties will be worse and will come sooner than usual.

Let every worker and every soldier use this example, which is
particularly instructive to the peasants, to fully explain to
the peasants how and why they were deceived!

The peasants can only achieve their ends in alliance with the
workers, not in a bloc (alliance) with the capitalists.